Episode 88
Are you ready to get some insight into how to make growth easy?
Dallas Henry is a high-energy junior tech executive at Google, where he brings 14 years of Army experience. He is also the founder of Henry Engagements, an organization focused on team building and executive coaching.
He currently serves as an Executive Officer in the Army Reserves, and while on active duty, Dallas served in Afghanistan and completed Ranger school. At Google, Dallas and his team support public-facing technical product launches in the e-commerce space.
If you want to develop yourself from the inside out and build authentic relationships with those around you, then you’re going to want to listen to this episode.
Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full Episode:
- Discover Dallas’ baseball diamond framework for balancing his leadership responsibilities.
- Get some insight into his philosophy of how to make growth easy.
- Learn about a unique process called “put it in the box” to help with breakthroughs.
Episode Highlights
Who is Dallas Henry
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- Dallas has 14 years of experience in the army and currently serves as an executive officer in the Army Reserves.
- He has brought his extensive army experience to the civilian sector by serving as a technical program lead at Google.
- He is the founder and lead content creator for Henry Engagements, focusing on coaching and team building.
The diamond framework
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- Dallas thinks of life as a baseball game, which helps him balance his obligations.
- Home base is family, and nothing should mess with home base.
- The primary base gives you your mainstream of revenue, spirituality or life balance.
- The second base is another passion that fills your cup.
- The third base is what you need to explore creative space.
Making growth easy
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- Dallas says that activating deliberate movement towards development is far easier than making it happen.
- Growth is easy when you do it on your terms; you own it, not waiting for it to come to you.
- Focus on what you’re best at and master that.
Focusing on your strengths
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- When doing the worst thing you can do, it becomes the most challenging thing for you to do.
- Focussing on your strengths and what’s easy energizes you.
- Doing what’s easy takes far less energy, makes you far more fulfilled, and you’ll have a higher yield.
Taking care of your future self
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- Dallas says that there is an opportunity to take care of your future self by staying committed to a path of growth.
- Take those risks so that your future self can reap the benefits because you invested in the past.
- Don’t betray your former self by not caring for your future self.
- Whether it’s learning a new language or furthering your education, your future self will thank you.
Put it in the box
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- Past experiences can haunt you, which is one of the toughest things to work through.
- When Dallas coaches, he uses a method called put it in the box.
- He recommends sharing aloud, putting it in the box, and setting it aside.
- With the box being physical and tangible, you can bring it out when you need to talk through your problems and pack it away.
What drew him to Google
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- It started with a referral from a fellow Ranger.
- There’s no bigger brand than the US Army, so to justify leaving a great career in the army, he needed it to be for the likes of Starbucks, Amazon or Google.
- He admits that his ego drove this validation.
- After submitting an application and not hearing back for a while, he got a call and got the job after the gauntlet of seven interviews.
Biggest lessons learned
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- Dallas has come up with a methodology where he thinks of himself at the center of a ring. He calls it the service wheel.
- He serves down first by taking care of his team and the people he leads.
- He then serves left and right to his peers, making sure they’re developed.
- He then serves up to take care of management and leadership.
- Dallas has discovered that when you serve down, serve left, serve right and serve up, and you’ll rarely need to come back and check on yourself.
The comparison
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- Dallas has found that the Army and Google have many similarities.
- They both operate in their ecosystem, where you have doctors, grocery stores, restaurants, and a chapel.
- When he went into the civilian sector, he found that big companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple want you to become citizens of their army and never want to leave.
- He says that it’s not that different from being in the army.
What knocks Dallas off his game
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- He is not a good father, husband, son and brother because he is running on empty.
- The second is when he doesn’t trust and love his leadership when he is not fully bought in, then he says his morale gets low and his effort level starts to drop quickly.
- Dallas needs to know that leadership will take care of him when he can’t take care of himself. If they don’t fill his cup, then he starts to hold back and doesn’t serve well.
Open Heart Leadership Model
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- The Open Heart Leadership Model is a seven-step model.
- It’s all about unlocking performance through servant leadership.
- Dallas says you need your vulnerability, authenticity, and relatability to establish a true connection.
How does Dallas want to be remembered?
- Dallas wants people to have been better. To have seen something in themselves they didn’t see before because they had interacted together. Whether that be friends, family or his team.
3 Powerful Quotes from this Episode
6:26 – "Take those risks now. Future, you will reap those benefits because you did those things in the past. So you have that opportunity. Now, don’t betray your former self by not taking care of your future self."
17:38 – "The thing that gives you the problem, put that in the box, talk about it, leave it and set it aside."
22:12 – "What you’ll find is serve down, serve left, right, serve up, you’ll be just fine. And you won’t have to come back and check on yourself because you’ll surround yourself with people doing the same and it has a continuing effect, down, left, right up."
About Dallas Henry
Dallas is very proud to come from a rich military family where his dad, uncle and granddad have served. He says it was never a conscious decision for him to follow this path. It was a natural progression through the stewardship and guidance of his family, as well as his spirituality.
As the founder of Henry Engagements, Dallas teaches his Open Heart Leadership Model, which focuses on inside-out growth and developing an authentic connection. Dallas and his team lead various team-building sessions, offer one-on-one coaching, and are proud to work with a diverse set of clients, making growth easy.
Connect with Dallas
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Thanks for listening,
Darrell
